IGN Video Games

IGN Video Games

Gundam: The Witch From Mercury Will Feature the Series' First Female Protagonist

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 01:30 PM PDT

For the first time since its debut in 1979, a Mobile Suit Gundam series will feature a female main character.

The still-unnamed protagonist was revealed in a new teaser for Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, where she was shown alongside her new Mobile Suit — the Gundam Aerial. The anime was announced in September of last year and is now scheduled to air this October.

Bandai Namco released a new teaser trailer for The Witch From Mercury showing the protagonist's short red hair blowing in the wind, and Gundam Aerial booting up towards the end. The series looks to have a modern art style and inspirational music if the trailer is anything to go by.

Produced by studio Sunrise, this is the first Gundam TV show since 2015's Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Oprhans. There will also be a prologue to The Witch From Mercury, which features two other Mobile Suits, Beguir-Beau and Gundam LFRITH. Details about the plot and characters for The Witch From Mecury have not been revealed yet, but more information should be coming later. It's also currently unknown which timeline this series will take place.

Women have played a prominent role in the Gundam multiverse going back to the original series, with some of the most famous examples including Sayla Mass, Emma Sheen, and Christina Mackenzie. However, Gundam's leads have generally been male teenagers who happen to fall into the cockpit of a powerful mobile weapon. It'll be interesting to see how Witch From Mercury changes up the formula after more than 40 years of Gundam stories.

In the meantime, there will be Gunpla for the three Mobile Suits. Gunpla models of Aerial, LFRITH, and Beguir-Beau will be available for purchase at a later date. Bandai Namco is also working on some other Gundam-related projects, including a game called Gundam Evolution, a 6v6 FPS game, and a brand-new Gundam Metaverse.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey

Rainbow Six Siege Creative Director on Permanent Arcade Mode, Cross-Play, and More

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 12:04 PM PDT

Boots On the Ground

We conducted some exclusive recon on all the new updates for Year 7 of Rainbow Six Siege. Here are top takeaways from our debriefing session with Alex Karpazis, Creative Director of the franchise, with insight on what you can expect to excite in Year 7.

Living for Deathmatch

A big addition that should make jumping into Siege a smoother experience for beginners is the new game mode, Team Deathmatch. It features five-on-five gameplay and no special abilities. "We've been asked about this kind of game mode for a while and we're super happy to ship it in Season 1," Karpazis revealed. "Team Deathmatch is a lot more approachable for new players to understand how our gun handling reacts and how destruction works in the game."

A New Reverence for Reputation

In Season 2, you'll start seeing signs of a new Reputation System—a behind-the-scenes monitor that has been quietly active for about a year. "It highlights players who are positive in the Siege community, while making sure we have the proper tools to address cheaters and toxicity in our game, where we have a zero-tolerance rule," Karpazis said.

Phase 2 of the Reputation System is slated to launch in Season 3; it screens for inappropriate voice and in-game chat violations and makes sure that players who abuse those systems don't have access until they appropriately change. "In Season 4, you'll see a Reputation System in full that can reward players for good behavior and features a more robust mechanism for penalizing or banning players for toxicity or cheating," he vowed.

Start Your Siege Journey in Year 7

Ubisoft is making it easier than ever to start playing Rainbow Six Siege with new additions in the form of in-game Operator Guides and shooting range. "We laid a lot of groundwork in Year 6, but a lot of these things come alive in Year 7, which is why it makes this year one of the biggest ever for us," Karpazis said. "Starting with Season 2, we have the new Shooting Range so players can test out all the weapons and learn more about them, and we're also dropping our in-game Operator Guides. Whether you're in the menus or live in a match you can learn more about an Operator and their gadgets."

Progression System Overhaul in Season 3

Karpazis teased updates to the competitive playlist. "We're doing a big re-work of our Ranked progression system, calling it Ranked 2.0. We're making sure it's a lot more rewarding every time you climb during the season."

Console Crossplay in Season 4

In a huge update, Karpazis' crew is facilitating crossplay between consoles and cross-progression on every platform Rainbow Six Siege is on! "This means you can play on whatever system you're comfortable with and bring your customization and friends list along with you," he confirmed.

Arcade Accentuation

In Season 4, a permanent Arcade Mode is scheduled to arrive, designed to expand upon the breezy entertainment the Siege team delivered in their previously random and beloved Arcade releases. "We wanted to provide a permanent place for players to jump in an experience something completely different in Siege. Whether it's the Golden Gun, Showdown, or many other events that we've run, it will be a constantly rotating game mode list where players can have fun with friends, blow off steam, and experience something a little different," he stated.

Dialing Up New Operators

When developing new Operators, Karpazis and his team must consider the meta along with the minutiae of the character. "Where are they coming from? What is their country of origin? What kinds of new gameplay mechanics can we bring? What kind of gameplay mechanics can change the meta or balance out the roster? We never approach each operator with a theme or template; each one is unique," he said. "When you see Azami in Season 1, this is an operator we've wanted to do for years now that we can finally launch and it changes the core of the game—instead of destruction now this Operator is an architect who can rebuild a map."

What Else Are You Excited About?

"Things like bringing an FOV slider to the console population—players have been asking for that and we're super happy to bring it to them," Karpazis exclaimed. "I'm also excited about crossplay and cross-progression and making sure it doesn't matter where you want to play Siege, you can still access it."

New maps are arriving this year for both the Competitive map pool and Team Deathmatch. "We're trying to use different ingredients that we haven't seen before to bring alive new environments," Karpazis confirmed.

Meaningful Meta

Built on years of evolution, listening to the community, and fine-tuning accordingly, Karpazis feels the game is in a good place at the moment, while the updates will make it more accessible to new players. "We're really happy with the meta that we've achieved," he said. "Siege is a very different game from when it first launched. Our cast has ballooned to over 60 Operators…and that can be a little intimidating for new players. We want to provide them with the tools to learn and immediately enjoy the game, too."

Season 1 saw updates to Goyo's canisters and has received a positive response from the community. "This is the kind of re-work players can expect throughout the year, where we look at the utility of an Operator and what they bring to the table. Are they still fun to play? Is there something new that can mesh well with others? We have fresh ideas for characters including Rook, Nokk, Zero, Thatcher, and more," Karpazis hinted.

Some of these updates have already dropped as Year 7 rages on, so any time is a good time to log in and check out the latest in Rainbow Six Siege.

For more on Rainbow Six Siege, be sure to check out our breakdown of Demon Veil, including the new Operator Azami, changes and additions like Attacker Repick and Match Replay for console players, improved face tech, and so much more.

Street Fighter 5 Definitive Update Features Cel-Shaded Graphics And 79 Pages Of Patch Notes

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 12:01 PM PDT

Capcom has unveiled everything players can expect out of the Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition's final update – including a staggering 79 pages worth of patch notes. Dubbed the "Definitive Update", today's substantial patch has no shortage of fresh content.

The pixel filter pays homage to the series' past by bathing the game in a classic arcade aesthetic that really hammers home the nostalgia, but it's the cel-shaded filter that truly offers something special. The crisp new visuals of the filter add depth and vibrancy to the game's 45 characters and their various attack animations, and could become a new fan-favorite way to play.

Meanwhile, the 2022 Premier Pass will provide players with costumes for Seth, M. Bison, and Akira, re-colors for all 45 characters, two fighter profile themes, five titles, and 10,000 Fight Money. Capcom is also planning to release new tracksuits for every character over the course of the Capcom Pro Tour.

The most shocking part of today's announcement, however, may be the extraordinary size of the patch notes, which features a wide selection of quality-of-life updates alongside huge changes to every character in the game. With so many alterations to the flow of the game, there will undoubtedly be a significant shift in the meta.

Capcom has clearly gone all out on saying goodbye to its flagship fighting game from the PS4 era, and the team will now presumably focus all of its attention toward the recently-announced Street Fighter 6. Capcom has promised we'll hear more about the sequel in Summer 2022.

Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition's "Definitive Update" goes live between 6pm and 10pm PST today, during which time the game's servers are expected to be unavailable.

In the meantime, Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition will be a part of the EVO 2022 lineup alongside other major titles like Tekken 7, Granblue Fantasy: Versus, and last year's hit, Guilty Gear Strive. The event will be held at Mandalay Bay Resort from August 5 to 7.

Billy Givens is a freelance writer at IGN.

Every Game Delay Announced in 2022 (So Far)

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 10:37 AM PDT

Video game delays have become commonplace during the pandemic — we tallied 60 delays in 2021 alone — as studios largely continue to work within the confines of remote or hybrid development. This dramatic shift in the way games are made may remain the norm throughout 2022, and as such, we're once again expecting to see a significant number of games delayed.

To keep track of these ever-shifting release dates and to keep you up on when to expect your most-anticipated games, we've created a running list of every such announcement: full games, notable DLC, and every piece of gaming hardware officially delayed this year.

Click through the gallery below or continue scrolling for the full list of every game delay announced in 2022 (so far).

STALKER 2 : Hearts of Chernobyl

  • Delayed from April 28 to December 8, 2022

STALKER 2 was the first game officially delayed in 2022. "These additional seven months of development are needed to fulfill our vision and achieve the desired state of the game," said developer GSC Game World. "STALKER 2 is the biggest project in the history of GSC, and it requires thorough testing and polishing. We are convinced that development should take as long as necessary, especially in the case of such a project."

While it was unfortunate news for the sequel, series fans are well practiced with patience; STALKER 2 comes more than a dozen years after the franchise's last release, Call of Pripyat.

King Arthur: Knight's Tale

  • Delayed from February 15 to March 29, 2022

The 1.0 release of King Arthur: Knight's Tale was delayed from February to March "in order to apply final touches and be able to provide a great launch experience," developer Neocore Games announced in January.

"As the pandemic situation is still very uncertain, we are putting health and security first," the post continues. "However, working from home does come with slight delays. We're confident that Knight's Tale will be ready by the end of March, and your journey in Avalon can finally begin."

Knight's Tale was released on Steam Early Access last January. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions are also in development, though they will be released at a later date.

Ghostrunner: Project_Hel DLC

  • Delayed from January 27 to March 3, 2022

Project_Hel, a major new DLC for Ghostrunner, was delayed from late January to early March. The extra development time will be used "to make even more worthwhile improvements while ensuring the health & safety of our team and global partners," reads a statement from the game's official Twitter account.

In Project_Hel you play as Hel, one of the original game's bosses. The DLC includes six story missions, new enemies, bosses, and six new tracks from electronic musician Daniel Deluxe.

Dying Light 2 for Nintendo Switch

  • Delayed from February 4, 2022, to an unannounced later date

Two weeks before its previously expected release date, the cloud version of Dying Light 2 for Nintendo Switch was delayed. Developer Techland says it should be out "within six months" of the original date, putting the Switch version's tentative release window between February and August.

The sequel will still hit PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC on February 4.

Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific and Vanguard Season 2

  • Delayed from February 2 to February 14, 2022

The second seasons of Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific and Call of Duty: Vanguard were both delayed by two weeks. Activision said it would use the additional time to "deliver updates, including optimizations to gameplay, game balancing (including weapon and equipment balancing), to fix game stability and bugs, and to ensure an overall level of polish to improve the experience."

Life Is Strange: Remastered Collection for Nintendo Switch

  • Delayed from February 1, 2022, to "later this year"

The Nintendo Switch version of Life Is Strange: Remastered Collection — a bundle of Life Is Strange and the follow-up prequel Life Is Strange: Before the Storm — was delayed less than two weeks before its initial release date. The developer said it experienced a setback with the Switch version and plans to have it ready "later this year."

The remastered games feature updated visuals, improved animations, and lighting upgrades. The collection is still expected to hit other platforms — PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia — on February 1.

Rumbleverse

  • Delayed from February 15, 2022, to an unannounced later date

Iron Galaxy's free-to-play, pro-wrestling-inspired battle royale game, Rumbleverse, was delayed out of mid-February to an unannounced later date. "We're excited about the game we're making – and we're glad you are, too – but there's more we want to do to perfect the experience," wrote the developer on its blog. "More than a game, Rumbleverse will be a community that we want to support for a long time. We're going to take the time to make sure we can get that right."

While you wait, you can read our Rumbleverse preview, in which we said the game "seems primed to be a legitimate new contender in the competitive battle royale genre."

Evil Dead: The Game

  • Delayed from February to May 13, 2022

In late January, Saber Interactive and Boss Team Games delayed their official Evil Dead game from February to May 13, 2022. "This delay gives our team the time they need to get things just right, so your boomstick will be polished, fully loaded, and ready to blast Deadites on that Friday the 13th of May," they said. A new trailer for the multiplayer game will be released sometime in February.

This is the second delay for Evil Dead: The Game; it was previously pushed from 2021 to February 2022.

Battlefield 2042 Season One

  • Delayed from Early 2022 to "early summer 2022"

Despite launching in November 2021, Season One of Battlefield 2042 has yet to begin. The wait for that new content was made even longer on February 1 when EA announced it was pushing the start of Season One to "early summer" 2022.

While Season One was never officially dated, EA's own wording makes it clear this was a delay: "We've had to make some big decisions to ensure that our next set of updates can be focused on delivering these improvements, with the most substantial one being to move the release date of our first Season to early Summer." The extra time will give developer DICE "the time to focus on improving the Battlefield 2042 experience while finalizing the development of our seasonal content to ensure that it all reaches our standard for quality."

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

  • Delayed from 2022 to Spring 2023

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been delayed from 2022 to Spring 2023. The news was first reported by Bloomberg in February, before Rocksteady confirmed the delay in March. "I know a delay is frustrating," said creative director Sefton Hill, "but that time is going into making the best game we can."

The one-to-four-player action game set in an open-world Metropolis and features four playable characters: Harley Quinn, King Shark, Deadshot, and Captain Boomerang.

Martha Is Dead (PS5, PS4 Physical Versions)

  • Delayed from February 24, 2022, to an unannounced later date

The physical release of Martha Is Dead for PS5 and PS4 was delayed indefinitely, developer LKA announced in mid-February. While a new date wasn't given, LKA hopes it will be out in "a small number of weeks."

The delay is due to a seemingly last-minute decision by Sony to not allow certain elements of the game to appear on PlayStation platforms. As such, LKA "requires extra time to make these unplanned changes."

LKA did not reveal which specific elements from the game it was being forced to remove, though the delay announcement was prefaced with a message about Martha Is Dead's "potentially discomforting scenes and themes."

The Xbox and PC versions, as well as the digital PlayStation versions, will be released as scheduled on February 24.

Little Orpheus (Console, PC Ports)

  • Delayed from March 1, 2022, to an unannounced later date

The console and PC versions of Little Orpheus have been delayed indefinitely following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, publisher Secret Mode announced on March 1 (the day the game was previously scheduled to be released).

"While Little Orpheus was originally released on Apple Arcade in June 2020 and does not directly reference recent world events, we recognize some of the game's themes and content may be upsetting to players at this time," said the publisher. Set in 1962, Little Orpheus follows a Soviet cosmonaut who explores the center of the earth. It features narration by a stereotypical Russian general while poking fun at the propagandist language of the Cold War era.

The Settlers

  • Delayed from March 17, 2022, to an unannounced later date

Ubisoft's reboot of real-time strategy series The Settlers was delayed indefinitely following its recent closed beta. Developer Ubisoft Düsseldorf said feedback from the beta made it clear "the quality wasn't yet in line with the team's vision."

A new release window was not announced, though the developer said the extra time "will be used to further improve the game and push quality as our main priority for all our players."

Halo Infinite Co-op Campaign

  • Delayed from May 3, 2022, to an unannounced later date

Halo Infinite's campaign co-op mode is no longer shipping with the start of the game's second season on May 3, developer 343 announced in early March. It will instead be released "later in Season 2."

"The reality is that it's going to take more time to land a high-quality, full-featured 4-player network co-op experience in the massive, wide-open world of Halo Infinite," said 343 Head of Creative Joseph Staten. "We're also committed to a great 2-player split-screen co-op experience on all Xbox consoles, from the original Xbox One through Xbox Series X—and the non-linear, wide-open sections of the Campaign present some big challenges for split-screen that have taken us more time to solve."

Campaign co-op, as well as Forge, notably didn't ship with Halo Infinite in December.

Forspoken

  • Delayed from May 25 to October 11, 2022

Open world action-RPG Forspoken was delayed from May 25 to October 11, developer Luminous Productions announced in March. The additional development time will allow the team to "focus all of [its] efforts on polishing the game" in order to "deliver a game world and hero that gamers across the globe will want to experience for years to come."

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp

  • Delayed from April 8, 2022, to an unannounced later date

On March 9, Nintendo delayed Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp indefinitely, citing "recent world events," presumably referring to the ongoing war in Ukraine. While Nintendo didn't elaborate further, it's understandable (and wise) that the company is avoiding the promotion and subsequent release of a war-based game in a time of conflict.

Exomecha

  • Delayed from Q1 2022 to an unannounced later date

Explosive free-to-play FPS Exomecha has been delayed out of its early 2022 release window. Developer TwistedRed made the announcement on Twitter, saying it needs more time to polish the shooter and "prepare some post launch content." A new release window was not announced.

This is Exomecha's second delay; it was originally scheduled for August 2021.

Roller Champions

Delayed from Early 2022 to "Late Spring" 2022

Ubisoft's free-to-play, roller derby-inspired Roller Champions has been pushed from its early 2022 release window to "late spring," the company announced on Discord (via Tom Henderson). "After evaluating every possible scenario, the team has concluded that they will need a bit more time to deliver the successful game you deserve," said Ubisoft.

First announced in 2019, Roller Champions' release window has been a moving target, shifting from early 2020 to early 2021 to early 2022 and now "late spring" 2022.

EA Sports PGA Tour

  • Delayed from Spring 2022 to Spring 2023

The return of EA Sports PGA Tour has been delayed by a year. The next-gen golf game, originally scheduled for Spring 2022, is now due out in Spring 2023. EA didn't provide a reason for the delay.

The delay was first mentioned back in November, though it wasn't until March that EA made the official announcement and revealed PGA Tour's new release window.

Sons of the Forest

  • Delayed from May to October 2022

In late March developer Endnight Games announced it was delaying Sons of the Forest by five months, from May to October 2022. The developer said the initial May release window for its The Forest sequel was "overly ambitious," adding it needs the additional five months "to deliver our vision of the next step in survival games."

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2

  • Delayed from 2022 to spring 2023

In late March, Nintendo confirmed the sequel to its 2017 hit Breath of the Wild will not be released in 2022 as originally planned. Instead, the team is aiming for a spring 2023 release, as, according to series producer Eiji Aonuma, "in order to make this game's experience something special, the entire development team is continuing to work diligently on this game, so please wait a while longer."

Xbox Games With Gold for April 2022 Revealed

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 09:05 AM PDT

Microsoft has announced that March 2022's Games with Gold are Another Sight, Hue, Outpost Kaloki X, and MX vs ATV Alive.

As revealed on Xbox Wire, the four Games with Gold will be available to anyone with Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, with Another Sight and Outpost Kaloki X available on April 1.

Another Sight is a side-scrolling fantasy adventure where players take control of a girl and her cat in a journey beyond reality. It was released in 2019 and takes around five or six hours to complete.

Also available on April 1, but only until April 15, is Outpost Kaloki X, a light-hearted space-station tycoon game with ridiculous characters and stories that released almost two decades ago in 2004.

In our 7/10 review, IGN said it's "an entertaining and surprisingly deep experience. For anyone looking for a quirky, unique experience, it's worth it to shell out to drop this onto your hard drive."

Available later in the month on April 16 is Hue, another game which concludes after around six hours. This 2016 platformer has players change the colour of the environment to solve puzzles, reveal hidden objects, and phase out obstructions.

Being released on the same day but only available for two weeks until April 30 is MX vs ATV Alive. This off-road racing game from 2011 was the fourth in the series and fans of the genre will know what to expect.

In our 6/10 review, IGN said: "MX vs. ATV Alive is plenty of fun, but not nearly as complete or polished as other racers released during this generation."

Be sure to redeem March 2022's Xbox Games with Gold before they leave the service, that includes The Flame in the Flood, Street Power Soccer, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, and SpongeBob's Truth or Square.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 Fans Already Have Theories About That Broken Master Sword

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 08:49 AM PDT

Nintendo announced today that it would be delaying the long-awaited Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel to Spring 2023, but a brief bit of footage included in the announcement has led to fans across the internet coming together with a common question – what's going on with the Master Sword? Some of them already have intriguing theories.

Today's footage shows Link holding what appears to be a destroyed (melted? Corrupted?) Master Sword near an orb of light, leading many fans to wonder if his quest (or part of it) could end up revolving around reforging the series' classic weapon.

Reddit users Zeldatroid and Capable_Afternoon687 even speculate that a journey to reforge the sword could ultimately be leading up to a final showdown with Ganon to see him defeated once and for all, opening the way for future games to include fresh villains.

More concerning is the question of what could've possibly caused such damage to the series' all-powerful sword. Malice – a corrupted sentient goo found around Hyrule in Breath of the Wild – reaches out and grabs Link's arm in a previous trailer, which could explain why the character appears to feature an arm cover or prosthesis of sorts in the new footage. It's possible, then, that this attack on Link led to the destruction of the Master Sword as well.

Meanwhile, Ratio01 points out that the scene is similar to the moments in Zelda: Skyward Sword wherein Link bathes the Goddess Sword in sacred flames to help create the Master Sword. Given that references to the Goddess Hylia appears in both Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild, it's certainly not out of the question that Link could be calling upon her to aid in repairing the sword. If that turns out to be the case, it could make for a powerful and nostalgic moment for franchise fans.

While other fans may eagerly seek out any bit of information they can find, Reddit user Slimehorn keeps things light with a simple joke: "Master Sword now inflicts tetanus." The sword does look pretty dangerous even in its destroyed form, so maybe it's best to stay careful.

Right now, we can only speculate on what lies in store for Link when he sets off on a new expansive adventure in the follow-up to Breath of the Wild, but we'll get a chance to find out when the game launches in Spring of 2023. Hopefully, we'll learn more about the story before then, though.

The sequel to Breath of the Wild (which still doesn't have an official name) was first announced in 2019, and was made because the team for the original game had too many ideas for DLC. We got the original 2022 release window last year, alongside the first gameplay. Nintendo patents have since given us more of a sense of the new mechanics it may introduce.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 Delayed to 2023

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 07:04 AM PDT

The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been delayed to Spring 2023. We got a tiny piece of new footage in return.

Series producer Eiji Aonuma announced and apologised for the delay in a video (below), saying "in order to make this game's experience something special, the entire development team is continuing to work diligently on this game, so please wait a while longer." No specific reason was given for the delay.

Eiji Aonuma described a little about the game amid the announcement, saying: "As previously announced, the adventure in this sequel will take place not just on the ground as in the previous game, but also in the skies above. However the expanded world goes beyond that, and there will be an even wwider variety of features you can enjoy, including new encounters and new gameplay elements."

Most of that was backed by footage we'd seen before, but one extra bit of footage has been added, showing a closer look at the new tattooed Link(?) we've previously glimpsed, and what seems to be a corrupted or broken version of the Master Sword.

The sequel to Breath of the Wild (which still doesn't have an official name) was first announced in 2019, and was made because the team for the original game had too many ideas for DLC. We got the original 2022 release window last year, alongside the first gameplay. Nintendo patents have since given us more of a sense of the new mechanics it may introduce.

Given that it's a sequel to what we've previously rated as the best game of all time, it's no surprise that Nintendo may want to hold it back and get it exactly right. After all, the original game was delayed too, and Aonuma explained in 2017:

"Every time we make a Zelda, we want to make something new. It's hard to gauge how long that's going to take. And it's also hard to gauge at what point whatever we consider to be new is done. A lot of times what we try to tackle takes a lot longer than anticipated. So that's why many times the development struggle there is a delay."

I'd imagine we'd hear a similar explanation in this case.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Uncharted Mobile Spin-Off Closes Down

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 06:55 AM PDT

The Uncharted: Fortune Hunter mobile game has been shut down.

Developer Naughty Dog announced the news on Twitter (below), saying the game will no longer be available to download on Android or iPhone devices, and all in-game purchases have been disabled.

Fortune Hunter is a puzzle platformer game that released alongside Uncharted 4: A Thief's End in May 2016, featuring more than 200 levels for series' protagonist Nathan Drake to overcome.

The game will still be playable in offline mode for those who have it downloaded already, but once users delete the app or change phones, Uncharted: Fortune Hunter will be gone forever.

Despite not making a huge splash in the gaming sphere when it launched and remaining relatively quiet since, the game was fairly well received by users. Its rating on the Apple App Store is a 4.4 out of 5 while on the Google Play Store it has a 3.9 out of 5.

While the Uncharted Movie was released earlier this year, the gaming side of the franchise has been relatively dormant since 2017 when Uncharted: The Lost Legacy was released on PlayStation 4.

It was remastered and re-released in January however, as part of the Legacy of Thieves Collection that also brought Uncharted 4 to the PlayStation 5.

While there's no word on a brand new entry, Uncharted creative director Shaun Escayg recently teased that Uncharted is "a world we want to see more of".

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Amazon Will Have PS5 Digital Edition Stock This Week

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 06:51 AM PDT

Amazon has confirmed it will have PS5 Digital stock on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. This will be for Prime members only (get a 30-day trial here), and stock will be available from 8AM PT / 11AM ET (see at Amazon).

It's actually quite unusual for Amazon to announce any kind of stock drop for the PS5, and normally just stealth announces it via a description change on the product page, or just drops the console altogether without any kind of warning. Whatever the case, set those alarms ready, and make sure you're following @IGNDeals to get an instant stock update and link to the page when it goes live.

PS5 Available at Amazon on Wednesday

How to Successfully Buy a PS5 This Week

First of all, make sure you're following @IGNDeals on Twitter, and stick notifications on for good measure. We'll inform you immediately when the PS5 stock goes live, and you can be quick to the mark. Otherwise, here are a few other tips and tricks to help you successfully purchase that PS5 on Wednesday.

  1. Sign into Amazon on two devices (Laptop, Tablet, Phone, etc),
  2. Have Amazon Prime setup and active (Get a 30-day trial here)
  3. Have your credit card and delivery address setup before 8AM PT on Wednesday
  4. Add PS5 Digital and PS5 Disc to your wishlist (see at Amazon)
  5. Buy the PS5 from your wishlist when it becomes available

All-New PlayStation Subscription Announced

PlayStation Plus is getting a rework in June, and there will now be three separate tiers available to choose from. The most expensive is the Premium tier, including around 700 PlayStation games, costing $17.99 a month, or $119.99 paid yearly.

With PlayStation Now merging into the new PlayStation Plus service, Sony has stated it "will no longer be available to buy standalone." Any current PlayStation Now customers will therefore be migrated over to PlayStation Plus Premium with no increase to their current subscription fees at launch.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Fortnite Zero Build Is a No-Build Battle Royale Mode That Is Here to Stay

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 06:46 AM PDT

Fortnite Zero Build is a new no-build battle royale mode that is here to stay following the beginning of Chapter 3, Season 2: Resistance that saw building temporarily removed from the main game for a short time.

As detailed by The Fortnite Team, Zero Build can be found in the Discover page as Solo, Duos, Trios, and Squads playlists. As the team notes, "You can access the Discover page by clicking on the "CHANGE" button above "PLAY!" in the Lobby."

Much like it was in the main game, all players will have access to a recharging Overshield that will help make up for the lack of cover that building would usually provide. Without building, you will need to "show off your sharp shooting, sharp thinking, and sharp sense of space as you take on the battle full-tilt."

Building has been gone since Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 2 began, and when it returns, those who had been waiting for this new way to play will still be able to play with a no-build mode.

Alongside the launch of the new season, Epic Games announced that it would be donating all of its Fortnite proceeds to humanitarian relief for people affected by the war in Ukraine for a two-week period. As of March 25, the donations have amounted to $70 million.

For more, check out all the details for Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 2: Resistance, which has added a Battle Pass that includes Doctor Strange and Prowler.

Correction: Building has not yet returned to the main battle royale mode as of this writing.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Bungie Sues Those Behind Fake YouTube Copyright Claims - Before It Knows Who They Are

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 06:44 AM PDT

Bungie is suing those behind a series of fake copyright claims that plagued Destiny content creators (and Bungie itself) last week. It just needs to find out who they were first.

As reported by TorrentFreak, the developer is targeting ten anonymous individuals, and while Bungie doesn't yet know their identities, the lawsuit claims "it will discover them soon, via subpoena or otherwise."

Several channels, including Bungie's own, had DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) strikes filed against them, causing YouTube to take a number of videos down. Bungie has criticised the site for not identifying the claims as fraudulent.

The developer said in the lawsuit: "Given the ease with which malicious actors can exploit YouTube's flawed DMCA practice and harm Bungie's community, Bungie brings this action to recover for the [John] Doe defendants' tortious and illegal conduct, and, frankly, to demonstrate to anyone else stupid enough to volunteer as a defendant by targeting Bungie's community for similar attack that they will be met by legal process."

The defendants allegedly created Google accounts to launch the takedown requests between March 17 and 22, and as Bungie added: "as far as YouTube is concerned, any person, anywhere in the world, can issue takedown notices on behalf of any rights holder, anywhere.

"This caused Bungie significant reputational and economic damage, for obvious reasons. As discussed below, the Destiny community was bewildered and upset, believing that Bungie had reneged on a promise to allow players to build their own streaming communities and YouTube channels on Destiny 2 content."

It will likely take months, if not years, for the lawsuit to resolve, but Bungie seemingly won't hold back in sharing details of the investigation as it seeks to make an example of the defendants.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

New PlayStation Plus Won't Add First-Party Exclusives at Launch

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 05:39 AM PDT

Sony's upcoming overhaul of the PlayStation Plus subscription service may sound a bit like Xbox Game Pass, but there's one important distinction: first-party exclusive games will not be added to PlayStation Plus on the day they release (at least not yet).

Talking to GamesIndustry.biz, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan said: "[In terms of] putting our own games into this service, or any of our services, upon their release... as you well know, this is not a road that we've gone down in the past. And it's not a road that we're going to go down with this new service. We feel if we were to do that with the games that we make at PlayStation Studios, that virtuous cycle will be broken. The level of investment that we need to make in our studios would not be possible, and we think the knock-on effect on the quality of the games that we make would not be something that gamers want."

That makes it pretty clear: God of War Ragnarök will not be available day one on PlayStation Plus. Nor should we expect brand new games from the likes of Naughty Dog, Insomniac, or Guerrilla to arrive on the service the day they launch.

At least, not for now. Ryan said, "I don't want to cast anything in stone at this stage. All I'm talking to today is the approach we're taking in the short term. The way our publishing model works right now, it doesn't make any sense. But things can change very quickly in this industry, as we all know."

While it is a marked difference from Game Pass, Ryan's reasoning is understandable, given that Sony's first-party outings currently have a tendency towards being self-contained single player games with little in the way of microtransactions (which remain a way to make money in a service like Game Pass). However, with the company looking to make "more than 10" live service games by 2026, it's possible we'll see that stance shift.

Sony has just today announced the new version of PlayStation Plus, which will offer three different subscription tiers. The basic is the same service we have today, but higher tiers will offer hundreds of PS4 and PS5 games, as well as access to retro games from previous PlayStation generations across both downloads and streaming.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.

Here's How Much Each New PlayStation Plus Tier Will Cost

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 05:29 AM PDT

Sony has finally announced its revision of its PlayStation Plus subscription service, effectively combining PS Plus and PS Now, alongside adding premium tiers that look likely to compete with Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass. There's a brand new three-tier structure to the service, Essential, Extra, and Premium.

The Extra tier will cost $14.99/month, and includes up to 400 PS5 and PS4 titles, while the Premium Tier will cost $17.99 a month and include all of those games, alongside an extra 340 additional games from PS3, PS2, original PlayStation, and PSP. The membership tiers will officially come into place starting in June, with a phased approach across Asia and North America, before making its way everywhere else.

How Much Does the All-new PlayStation Plus Cost?

We've included a detailed breakdown of the costs just below here, but putting it simply, if you want to remain on your basic PlayStation Plus subscription, you're looking at PS Plus Essential.

This costs $9.99 a month, and includes all the benefits you're already used to, including online multiplayer access, cloud game saves, monthly free games, and more. PS Plus Extra and Premium are what many will compare to the Xbox Game Pass model.

PlayStation Plus Essential

  • United States: $9.99 monthly / $24.99 quarterly / $59.99 yearly
  • Europe: €8,99 monthly / €24.99 quarterly / €59.99 yearly
  • United Kingdom: £6.99 monthly / £19.99 quarterly / £49.99 yearly
  • Japan: ¥850 monthly / ¥2150 quarterly / ¥5143 yearly

PlayStation Plus Extra

  • United States: $14.99 monthly / $39.99 quarterly / $99.99 yearly
  • Europe: €13.99 monthly / €39.99 quarterly / €99.99 yearly
  • United Kingdom: £10.99 monthly / £31.99 quarterly / £83.99 yearly
  • Japan: ¥1,300 monthly / ¥3,600 quarterly / ¥8,600 yearly

PlayStation Plus Premium

  • United States: $17.99 monthly / $49.99 quarterly / $119.99 yearly
  • Europe: €16.99 monthly / €49.99 quarterly / €119.99 yearly
  • United Kingdom: £13.49 monthly / £39.99 quarterly / £99.99 yearly
  • Japan: ¥1,550 monthly / ¥4,300 quarterly / ¥10,250 yearly

What Games Will Be on PS Plus Extra and Premium?

If you subscribe to the PS Plus Premium membership tier, you can expect around 700 games in total to be included with the subscription. Sony has stated at launch they're expecting to have games such as Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel's Spider-Man, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal.

Games from PS3, PS2, and original PlayStation era titles will also be available via cloud streaming and direct downloads, but this will definitely differ depending on what game you're trying to play.

What Happens to My Current PS Plus Subscription?

With PlayStation Now transitioning into the new PlayStation Plus service, Sony has stated PS Now "will no longer be available to buy standalone." Any current PS Now subscribers will have their membership converted to PS Plus Premium at no extra cost at launch.

There is no current word on how those who have stacked months or even years of PS Plus membership will be able to upgrade and convert their current time into Extra or Premium tiers. Moreover, what about those who have both PS Now and PS Plus? No clear answers yet, but Sony is expecting to reveal even more about the new PlayStation Plus very soon.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

PlayStation Officially Announces 'All-New PlayStation Plus' Subscription With Multiple Tiers and Retro Games

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 05:05 AM PDT

Sony has finally revealed its Xbox Game Pass competitor, an "all-new PlayStation Plus" that brings together the existing PS Plus and PS Now into a three-tier subscription service that includes up to 700 games and access to retro games at the top tier. It will open for some markets in June and roll out worldwide regionally after that.

After months of reports, and even longer being speculated about, Sony finally revealed the new service today. It consists of three tiers, PlayStation Plus Essential, PlayStation Plus Extra, and PlayStation Plus Premium. As part of the move, PS Now will be closed down, with members migrated to the Premium tier, with no change to prices at launch.

At its top tier, the new PS Plus will offer more than 700 games for streaming or download (including streaming on PC), and the library will be "regularly refreshed". PS3 games will be available as streaming-only titles, while PS1, PS2 and PSP games will come with download or streaming options. Sony has made clear that (at least for now) first-party exclusives will not be launched into the service for any tier, unlike Xbox Game Pass.

The service will launch with the likes of Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel's Spider-Man, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal. Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan told GamesIndustry there's a diverse line-up to come: "Whether it's indies, whether it's big games, or things that celebrate our heritage... all sorts of games. We are going to have all of it, and hopefully a line-up that ticks all sorts of boxes."

The new service will roll out regionally, beginning in "several markets in Asia" in June, followed by North America, Europe and the rest of the world. No specific dates have been offered as yet.

You can see full details and pricing for each tier below:

While Sony says it's looking to increase coverage for cloud streaming across the world, regions without access to it will instead get a different tier, Deluxe, which removes streaming (and thus all PS3 games) from the Premium tier, but comes in at a lower price. Deluxe will seemingly not be available outside of those regions.

While the new PS Plus bears similarities in approach to Game Pass, there are multiple differences – not least in how exclusives are handled. Xbox Game Pass has arguably been one of the most important decisions Microsoft has made about its gaming business in recent years, offering a rotating selection of games (including first-party titles on launch day) as part of a subscription, and tying in Cloud Gaming and other perks at the more expensive Ultimate tier. It's been an enormously popular move, and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer previously called a PlayStation response to Game Pass an "inevitability".

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Apex Legends Finally Gets Native PS5 and Xbox Series X/S Versions Today

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 03:49 AM PDT

The native PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions of Apex Legends are now available.

As part of the Warriors Collection event, developers Respawn Entertainment and Panic Button temporarily brought back Control mode, added an arena map, released limited-time items, and quietly launched the next-gen versions.

Apex Legends runs in native 4K resolution on the new consoles, with 60hz gameplay and full HDR. Next-gen players will also have improved draw distances and more detailed models.

The developers also outlined a number of updates coming in the future, including 120hz gameplay, adaptive triggers and haptic feedback on PS5, and other general visual and audio improvements across both consoles.

While the new version of Apex Legends arrives automatically through Smart Delivery on Xbox Series X and S, PS5 users need to take a few more steps.

By navigating to Apex Legends on the console dashboard, users must press the "Options" button and, under "Select Version", choose to download the PS5 version. Once the download is complete, before opening the new software, navigate to and delete the PS4 version of Apex Legends from the console.

The patch also fixes dozens of minor issues across all platforms, with the full notes available to view on the game's website.

The next-gen versions of Apex Legends will seemingly get a lot of use, as a recent leak seemingly revealed years of content for the game including nine new heroes and much more.

In our 9/10 review, IGN said: "Apex Legends' mix of exciting characters, excellent gunplay, and unmatched FPS movement keep it a consistently fresh thrill."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

New World Update Finally Completes the Game's Main Story

Posted: 29 Mar 2022 03:48 AM PDT

Update: Amazon has announced that Heart of Madness will now be released on March 30 after a bug was found.

An enormous New World update arrives on March 29, and it finally completes the game's main story.

While the patch includes literally hundreds of changes, it's headlined by the inclusion of the game's final main storyline quest, called Heart of Madness, through which players can finally take on the mysterious and evil Isabella.

The new story mission is given by Yseult Meredith at the Mountain Home Outpost in Shattered Mountain and developer Amazon Games recommends players be at level 60 with Gearscores between 550 and 570.

It's not clear what Amazon Games plans to do with the storyline of the game beyond your confrontation with Isabella, although we'd guess there may be tease included.

Also in this update is a new weapon, the Blunderbuss, which operates best at close and mid-range and is the first weapon to scale with strength and intelligence, making it an ideal tool for bruisers and mages.

The Blunderbuss comes with two weapon mastery trees to work through and, upon reaching level 60 and the maximum skill level, a new legendary weapon quest series.

World exploration is another focus of the update as Amazon Games has added two collectible paintings in each territory and players can now find a number of unique enemies roaming around different landscapes that offer rare rewards.

As mentioned, the patch includes literally hundreds of other fixes, changes, and additions to New World, and players can view the full notes on the game's official website.

In our 6/10 review, IGN said: "New World is a very pretty survival-MMORPG hybrid that saves its best moments for the endgame – but you have to be willing to grind like hell to get to them."

Correction: This article originally called the update Heart of the Tempest, rather than Heart of Madness.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Formula E Expands Partnership with Motorsport Games, rFactor 2

Posted: 28 Mar 2022 05:44 PM PDT

Motorsport Games has today confirmed that rFactor 2 will become the official sim racing platform of Formula E, the world's leading all-electric, open-wheel motorsport series. This partnership comes as an extension of the existing agreement between Motorsport Games and Formula E.

All 11 official teams and all 22 drivers and cars from the currently underway Formula E season are available for rFactor 2 on PC starting today. The platform now features every season of Formula E since 2018.

"Formula E is one of the fastest growing motorsports series and we couldn't be more excited and honored to bring it to life fully within rFactor 2," said Motorsport Games CEO Dmitry Kozko in a statement published alongside the announcement. "rFactor 2 continues to be the best-in-class simulation platform in the marketplace. This addition to its robust offering of motorsport series will greatly enhance the experience and offerings available to our players. With our expertise on creating authentic racing simulations and remarkable esports events coupled with Formula E's surging popularity, we know that our partnership will reach every goal in place between our teams."

Formula E will also be launching an esports series powered by rFactor 2's in-game competitions platform. This comes in the wake of previous esports experience gleaned from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Formula E was one of several motorsports to temporarily pivot to esports as a replacement for real-world racing. The Formula E Race at Home Challenge was nine-week esports competition held in 2020 featuring all the teams and drivers of the 2019-20 Formula E season.

Motorsport Games has a number of ongoing partnerships with racing organisations, including NASCAR, BTCC, and an exclusive "long-term license" with IndyCar that should see a new game released in 2023.

Luke is Games Editor at IGN's Sydney office. You can chat to him on Twitter @MrLukeReilly.

Ratchet & Clank: Rejected Names for Rivet Included Rachette, Gadget, and...Ratchet

Posted: 28 Mar 2022 04:05 PM PDT

Update 3/29/2022: Following publication, Sam Maggs, who was lead writer on Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart for a year and a half, shared further insight on Rivet's development via her Twitter. Maggs had a key role on the team that developed Rivet as a character, and is credited by multiple developers within Insomniac as the individual who came up with the name Rivet.

In her thread, Maggs talks through her process for coming up with the name, saying that she started from three core concepts:

  • Should ideally also be named after a tool or mechanism
  • Should also be two syllables to evoke the similarity on speaking
  • Ideally should end with a hard sound

It was these concepts that led to Gadget as an early idea for a name, though Maggs had other ideas on her short list, such as the rejected "Socket" and "Hammer". But Rivet, she says, was an "instant win" when she sent her short list to the team.

"Narrative on games takes a lot more than 'Somebody said something at a meeting I guess,' Maggs concluded. "Naming is especially challenging! It's actually the hardest thing I do on most games, I hate it haha. So there's a little peek into that."

Original Story 3/28/2022:

In the wake of the initial announcement of Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart, one question was on everyone's minds: who was that very cool new lombax?

After months of internet theories and embarrassing people referring to her as just "Girl Ratchet" or similar, we finally learned her name was Rivet — an absolutely perfect name for an equal fighter to Ratchet from another dimension. But as it turns out, it wasn't an easy road for developer Insomniac to arrive at Rivet's incredible design, her place in Rift Apart, or even her excellent name itself.

In his GDC talk: "Lombax Lessons: A 'Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart' Design Postmortem," Insomniac lead designer Mark Stuart walked attendees through the story of Rivet's naming and design. Rivet was born from one of Rift Apart's design pillars, he said, which is that "Everyone's a Hero," meaning the team had an opportunity to create a "strong, playable, female lead" alongside Ratchet.

They began work on Rivet early on under the code name "Ratchette," but quickly nixed it for being "too diminutive" and "reducing her existence to a gender-swapped Ratchet," he said.

And then, Stuart continued, things got even sillier.

"For a while we switched to her just being named Ratchet. After all, she and Ratchet are technically dimensional counterparts. Ratchet is a non-gendered name. This stuck for a while, but ultimately made every draft of the story very confusing. For example: 'Ratchet needs to rescue Clank from Ratchet, who doesn't trust Ratchet and has a long history battling Nefarious.' At a time where story treatments were being rapidly iterated on, it was hard to tell what dimension you were in, but also which Ratchet you were talking about."

Next, Stuart said, they switched to the codename Gadget. That was better, but it ultimately didn't sit right with team members who were kids in the 80s due to multiple other similar characters named Gadget from around that era (Inspector Gadget and Gadget from Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers were given as examples in his slideshow).

It was hard to tell what dimension you were in, but also which Ratchet you were talking about.

Then in a weekly meeting where name ideas were being thrown around, someone pitched Rivet off the cuff and people immediately loved it. It fit perfectly as another tool like Ratchet, and it also called to mind an image of Rosie the Riveter. And so Rivet became canon.

Stuart then went on to share details about the early visual designs of Rivet. He took us through a number of interesting pieces of concept art (which artist Dave Guertin has also shared on his personal page), showing off how the Insomniac team explored different themes for the character. Early on, one they honed in on was the concept of the "survivalist beastmaster."

This version of Rivet would have leaned into her grudge against Nefarious, extending it to all machines to the point of a total rejection of machinery. Instead, Rivet would embrace nature, and would have the ability to tame three different mounts: a beetle, a flyer, and an Agorian beast.

Rivet's beast taming ability was ultimately rejected, though, in part because in this version of the game Ratchet was turning out to be much more fun to play. His regular toolkit let him do everything Rivet could do without the assistance of other creatures. But there's another reason they nixed the idea.

"We realized the nature-loving woman was a trope," Stuart said. "Think FernGully, Pocahontas, or Krystal from Star Fox. Moreover, constraining the theme of her weaponry stifled the creativity the franchise was known for. Ratchet's weapons can shift, cut, bomb, and transmute. Making her set exclusively nature-based put unnecessary constraints on us."

Ultimately the nature design did inspire a few of Rivet's final weapons, like Mr. Fungi, and some of the beast ideas were later recycled into Rift Apart's Speedle and Trudi, though Speedle lost an earlier concept ability where it had a large, glowing butt that would explode whenever it collided with something. Apparently, murdering your mounts didn't jive with the idea that "everyone's a hero".

Insomniac still struggled to find a good way to make Rivet distinct, though. They tried giving Rivet and Ratchet completely different ability sets, but that made it frustrating for playtesters, who would forget which lombax they were in control of at a given time and realize mid-jump they didn't have the abilities they thought they did. So Insomniac added the ability to swap between the two on the fly, but that was also confusing in action, and they were hard-pressed to create a lore explanation for where the other lombax went when they swapped out, or who was where during the cinematics.

"Faced with the knowledge that strongly differentiated playstyles were actively hurting the holistic experience, we were forced to reexamine how long we were going to play as each lombax," Stuart said. "Or to put it another way: is Rivet cake, or frosting? Is she what makes up the core of the game, like Ratchet, or is she a unique and enjoyable diversion in small doses throughout? After all, Clank has drastically different mechanics than Ratchet in most games, but we only play as him for [a small portion] of the game. Clank is generally considered to be delightful frosting. A lot of these problems go away if Rivet is only playable for small, focused sections of the game."

We wanted Rivet to be core gameplay. Her inclusion was meant to be inspirational representation and not a bonus mechanic.

But to find an answer, Insomniac had only to look back to its design pillars, including "Everyone's a Hero." Insomniac had wanted from the beginning to include a strong, playable, female protagonist, and they wanted to make the best distinctively Ratchet & Clank game they could from start to finish. Put together, that meant no shortcuts with Rivet.

"Rivet needed to be pure cake like Ratchet," Stuart continued. "We wanted Rivet to be core gameplay. Her inclusion was meant to be inspirational representation and not a bonus mechanic. In fact, in the final product, she makes up about 50% of the playtime."

Which is how we got the Rivet we know today. Insomniac unified the two under the same pool of weapons and abilities, then differentiated them in other ways, such as personality, appearance, animations, and obviously the story. And we're glad they landed on the Rivet we know and love, as you can tell from our launch review of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and its place as one of our favorite games of 2021.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Preview - Getting in the Spirit

Posted: 28 Mar 2022 03:00 PM PDT

The individual trappings, characters, and references to crossing the streams carry lots of nostalgia weight in the Ghostbusters franchise, especially among those who, like me, fell in love with the first film in their youth. But if you're really trying to make something distinctively Ghostbusters, what you really need is a healthy dash of absolute nonsense. It's the energy that birthed the monstrosity of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in the first place, and the comedic timing that makes lines like "When someone asks if you're a God…" really sing. Put simply, Ghostbusters needs to be a little stupid in a good way. And in Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, I suspect Illfonic may have nailed the exact flavor of good stupidity I was looking for from a four-person cooperative Ghostbusters game.

I'll get to the goofiness in a bit, though, because like all good comedy, Spirits Unleashed's ghost fights need some structure. In my hands-on session, I'm dropped into a map called The Museum alongside two developers playing cooperatively with me, and a third AI player that, were our voice comms not a thing, would have blended right into our group of human players without me noticing. We're trying to capture a ghost controlled by another Illfonic developer, whose job it is to escape our capture and thoroughly haunt the museum before we can stop it. I'm armed appropriately with a proton pack and a PKE meter I can swap between, as well as a ghost trap I can toss on the ground for ghost capturing - though if I don't remember to pick it up when I'm done, I won't have it at my disposal for the next ghost encounter.

In the early parts of the match, we're largely split up across the floor, PKE meters out and beeping away as we search for ghostly activity. Passing civilians wandering the exhibits are ripe ghost targets, but at the start remain calm and collected. I explored a dinosaur exhibit, aquatic life, a cafe, and a section devoted to unusual relics and curiosities, all spread out across a top and lower floor laid out with balconies overlooking the lower exhibits and multiple staircases. All the exhibits are closely interconnected, making movement between them easy, and are full of stuff. Vases, models of animals, janitorial supplies, tables and chairs, and all kinds of other objects fill the space, both bringing it to life and ensuring our ghost prey has plenty of places to hide…or haunt.

Which is exactly what the ghost we're tracking eventually does. As chaos begins to stir, our PKE meters start to blip, but they might not necessarily be indicating the ghost itself. The ghost can "haunt" different objects, sending chairs flying across the room or creating other eerie, ghastly effects. He's also protecting three "rifts" hidden across the museum that we'll need to destroy with our proton packs if we want to win the match. As long as there's a rift still up, the ghost can use it to respawn if we manage to capture and trap it. But if we find and blast the rifts apart, the ghost is toast.

Our attempts to close rifts result in chaotic, colorful firefights as the ghost belches slime and sneakily disables our proton packs from behind.

But more than trying to evade capture, the ghost we're after is here on a mission. He's here to haunt. As I experienced in my later match on the spectral side, ghosts can win by scaring away all the aforementioned civilians roaming the map. Civilians are easily startled, so ghost abilities like sliming or sending out smaller ghostly minions are freaky enough to do the job - or they can just go in for a direct attack. Fortunately, the ghost doesn't have unlimited scare power – every ghostly ability costs them ectoplasm, which must be rejuvenated eventually by possessing an object for a period of time, rendering the ghost more vulnerable to capture…especially if he, as one of my opponents did, possesses an innocent mop bucket and then scoots rapidly across the floor in a goofy attempt to escape our grasp.

For the first half of the match, catching the ghost is just a secondary objective. Since our opponent can respawn as long as there's a rift around, we're stalking around the museum, PKE meters out, looking for rifts to destroy and calming down any concerned civilians we run across. But the ghost isn't giving up rifts easily. Our attempts to close them result in chaotic, colorful firefights as the ghost belches slime and sneakily disables our proton packs from behind. Our proton packs are powerful and can, with enough focus, grapple the ghost for a period of time to drag it into a trap. But they're appropriately unwieldy and deliberately hard to aim, resulting in plenty of familiar Ghostbusters moments where we're all waving our guns wildly around one another trying to latch onto a ghost as it cackles merrily above our heads and sends another wave of ghost minions to distract us further.

But with four of us working together we do, eventually, get the rifts closed, leaving the ghost with nowhere to run. But our opponent hasn't been idle. He's haunted half the museum, sending slime dribbling down the walls as the match progresses, objects floating and glowing with wild abandon, and civilians scattering out the doors. All of the matches I played during my demo time culminated in a frantic final few minutes where the Ghostbuster team sprinted through the museum to track and trap the ghost, pinging map locations where it was spotted and yelling gleefully into the microphone as we awkwardly tried to blast it down from a distance. Meanwhile, with nothing left to distract his pursuers, our resident ghost has to stay alive long enough to find and scare away the final civilians with its limited energy stores, all while faced with an increasingly aggressive squad of Ghostbusters. I'm proud to say I did manage to win my match alone as the ghost against the team of developer Ghostbusters, largely by aggressively haunting every boring inanimate object I ran across until the whole museum looked like a very gooey magic show.

It's very easy to see the many ways in which Illfonic can iterate on Spirits Unleashed to ensure a fun player experience long-term.

My playtime was limited to a single map, The Museum, and a single, simple set of Ghostbuster appearances and abilities, as well as one specific ghost with a set arsenal of ectoplasmic powers. But Illfonic tells me that's hardly the whole game. The final product will have more maps, lots of unlockable customization for the Ghostbusters both cosmetic and practical, and of course, plenty more ghosts with different abilities. It's very easy to see from here the many ways in which Illfonic can iterate on Spirits Unleashed to ensure a fun player experience long-term so that matches won't get stale, and I'm especially excited to experiment with a wider variety of ghost powers when the time comes.

Though supposedly only a small sliver of the final game, I see a lot of promise in Spirits Unleashed and am eager for more. The pacing of the matches I played was beautifully reminiscent of the original Ghostbusters film, echoing the infamous library scene beginning with the group slowly walking through the shelves searching for activity, and ending in utter chaos, destruction, and brightly-colored slime. Spirits Unleashed takes a lot of the best elements of games like Prop Hunt, Phasmaphobia, and Luigi's Ghost Mansion from Nintendo Land and throws them into the world of Ghostbusters, which it turns out is a pretty good cocktail for a game set in that universe. With that backdrop in place, Spirits Unleashed has plenty of room for the kind of emergent silliness that I am hopeful will make playing it with my friends sticky, fun, and yes, a little stupid - exactly what I want from Ghostbusters.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Blizzard Clarifies Diablo Immortal Release Date Listed On iOS

Posted: 28 Mar 2022 12:27 PM PDT

Blizzard has clarified that the launch date listed for Diablo Immortal on iOS and iPadOS is only a placeholder and that an official date will be announced in the future.

The company opened iOS and iPadOS pre-orders for Diablo Immortal today, as well as pre-registration for Android users, with a listed release date of June 30. Placeholder dates are common for upcoming games, but they can often provide a bit of confusion, thus Blizzard has sought to clear things up.

"As a point of clarification for anyone who pre-registers on iOS and iPadOS, players will notice that the game is listed with a launch date of June 30," Blizzard told IGN in a statement. "We want to make it clear that June 30 is not the official launch date of Diablo Immortal, and this is just a placeholder for the time being as we lock in our final plans. We will update the community with our official launch timing at a later date."

In addition to opening pre-orders, Blizzard also shared that Diablo Immortal will feature an option for users to change their class without having to start new characters. By visiting Westmarch, players can select a new class and fresh visuals for their character without losing any of the progress made with previous classes.

The ability to change classes with relative ease appears to function similarly to Final Fantasy 14's job system, which allows players to move effortlessly between different styles of play without any notable downsides. This type of functionality effectively removes the need for alt characters, granting users the freedom to remain invested in a single character regardless of what role they wish to play.

We went hands-on with Diablo Immortal's closed beta, as well as its closed alpha last year and had mixed feelings. Though it's a fun romp with the series' iconic setting and slick gameplay, we found that some of its convoluted free-to-play mobile elements brought the experience down.

Hopefully, some of these issues will be ironed out in the final release, which is planned for sometime in 2022.

Billy Givens is a freelance writer at IGN.
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